Ask John: Why is There a Backlash Against Naruto Now?

Question:
I’ve been told by fans who follow the Naruto manga that the Naruto versus Sasuke battle (beginning around TV episode 130) reaches Dragonball Z levels of over-the-top insanity. Interestingly, they all say that with a groan, as if extreme shounen fighting is a bad thing. Most American Naruto fans have complained about the manga and anime because it’s becoming too much like Dragonball Z (over the top, unrealistic fighting, slow pacing, huge special attacks), but I never saw an indication that Naruto was going to be a realistic fighting anime from the beginning. It further doesn’t make much sense to me to selectively love and hate shounen fighting shows. I think you can have favorites, but I don’t see how a person can love Yuu Yuu Hakusho, Naruto, One Piece, and Hunter X Hunter but hate Dragonball Z, Flame of Recca, and Fist of the North Star. Their stories, characters, and packaging are different, but they are all made of the same mold and soul: passionate youths fighting each other. I don’t see how you can go from thinking Naruto is the Second Coming of Anime until Sasuke gets angsty and fights Naruto, at which point you decide it’s so lame you stop watching. Naruto was always essentially a slightly more restrainted version of Dragonball Z.

What I really think is going on is elitism in the American fan. Once Naruto started becoming popular among newbie anime fans, it suddenly became too popular. Because anime fans feel the need to assert an identity of belonging to an upper tier of a subculture group, they have to now dislike Naruto because it seems too popular and too similar to Dragonball Z, which they associate with those who are unworthy to be “true” anime fans. What do you think? Do I have a good hypothesis or do you think I’m way off base?

Answer:
The word “elitism” gets used in American anime fan circles far too often for my taste. “Elitism” is a sense of superiority or entitlement, thus it has no place in American anime fandom. With the rare exception of titles like D.I.C.E., Big O II and Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust, anime is not made for Americans and Americans have no natural entitlement to anime. By all rights, Americans should feel even less sense of entitlement or possession over anime like Nartuo that’s not presently available in America with the permission or approval of its creators and owners. Furthermore, it may be useful to distinguish degrees of experience among anime fans in order to confirm the validity of a fan’s opinions, but there’s no purpose to anime fans having a sense of superiority above other fans except to fulfill personal ego. Like a parent that wants his or her child to become popular and successful, all anime fans should want anime to become popular and successful in America. Becoming resentful that a favorite underground anime is becoming popular among the mainstream isn’t reasonably justified. But, after all, jealousy is human nature. That, I think, is where the explanation lies.

Fans that are disappointed over the direction the Naruto anime is going in with its current storyline may, in fact, actually be jealous that the anime by which they’ve been defining themselves is no longer suitable for that purpose. If that’s the case, the fault isn’t with the Naruto anime itself; it’s with certain fans’ perception of the Naruto anime. Naruto is a boys’ action show based on a popular Shonen Jump manga series. In that sense it should be thought of as similar to Dragonball, One Piece, Hunter x Hunter, and Yu Yu Hakusho. All of these titles are tremendously popular and successful because they have the same fundmental characteristics. They’re easy to identify with; they feature larger than life action and adventure that’s never too mature or too intense for small children; and they emphasize moral values including the power and strength of friendship, and the importance of honesty to the self and others. I think that dissatisfaction of the direction Naruto is going in is caused by two factors: a misunderstanding of the fundmental identity of the Naruto story, and a resentment over its stylistic evolution.

Many American Naruto fans, I think, enjoy Naruto because it creates a sense of exclusivity. In its present state in America, Naruto fandom is a large but still exclusive club. The show is accessible enough to appeal to anyone that wants to watch it, regardless of age or gender, but since it’s still underground in America, Naruto fans can feel a sense of superiority and exclusivity by being a fan. And because of the way that the Naruto story is constructed, as a continuing story rather than feeling like a series of loosely connected story arcs, it’s easy for viewers to delude themselves into believing that Naruto is a highly intelligent and mature anime series. Before that statement is misconstrued, allow me to clarify that the Naruto anime is satisfying because it’s generally not condescending, and its characterizations are constructed well enough to feel believable. But ultimately Naruto is still a Shonen Jump action series targeted at 12 year old Japanese boys. Now that the series is beginning to make that nature apparent, I suspect that American fans are feeling betrayed. As a fan of the Naruto anime itself, not its ambience, I’m personally very excited by the direction the series is going in. I’m very anxious to see even more spectacular action and excitement than what the show has so far contained. But fans that have developed a perception of Naruto as a mature, psychological adventure story may find the direction of the series at odds with their perception of the show. For several years now many American fans have been faithfully watching the Naruto anime and have developed expectations for the show. Not realizing that Naruto has always been the literal successor to Dragonball – a long running martial arts action story with a large cast and origins in Shonen Jump Magazine – many fans are now, I suspect, feeling betrayed that Naruto is obviously becoming what it always was. These fans may be subconsciously feeling that the current Naruto vs. Sasuke storyline is too great of a departure from the stylistic development of the show up to this point. However, the conflict between Naruto and Sasuke has been predicted since the very first episode. And the action has consistently become more spectacular and more superhuman with each story arc since the beginning of the series. So the fact that Naruto is becoming more comparable to Dragonball should really be no surprise to anyone. And the increasing stylistic similarity isn’t a bad thing. American fans may dislike Dragonball Z because it’s associated with entry level anime fandom and simplistic storytelling, but Dragonaball Z is not a bad anime series. Anime fans that are becoming jaded over Naruto should realize that it’s not the Naruto anime that’s changing; its their own recognition of the Naruto anime that’s changing.